Stalemate (Eve Duncan)
by Iris Johansen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Iris JohansenEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-12-26
ISBN: 0553586548
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of Stalemate (Eve Duncan)
Book Review: Duncan's obsession over her missing daughter is put to good use in "Stalemate"!
Summary: 4 Stars
Eve Duncan, one of the world's best known forensic sculptors, specializes in the recreation of facial features from skulls. Having lost her beloved daughter, Bonnie, to abduction and murder and having suffered the anguish of never having found the body, her passion is helping parents in a similar situation. She reconstructs heads and faces and confirms the identification of skeletal remains so that grieving parents can find closure and move on with their lives.
When she receives a call from Luis Montalvo, a sleazy but powerful smuggler of illegal armaments and drugs in South America, asking for help with the identification of a skull, her first inclination is to tell him to push off; that she simply isn't inclined, at any price, to help someone who enriches himself by doing so much harm in the world.
But, in exchange for her forensic reconstruction of this skull, Montalvo promises to put all of his wealth, all his manpower and all of his underworld contacts into an effort to find Duncan's daughter's body and to identify her killer. This is a lure that Duncan is helpless to resist and she finds herself quickly on the way to South America even though she doubts Montalvo will keep his word. Duncan is quite certain that she'll find herself in an unmarked grave after she completes the task.
I've read a couple of other Johansen novels in which I found Eve Duncan's angst and never-ending obsession with the disappearance of her daughter to be tiresome. But "Stalemate" avoids this problem entirely. It's a topnotch thriller that keeps the excitement meter pushed to the stops for the entire novel. Instead of allowing Duncan's angst to become tedious, Johansen has cleverly used it to allow Duncan's complex character to grow and develop and to add depth and details to the story of her stormy relationship with former FBI agent Joe Quinn. Best of all, she allows Duncan to experience an almost irresistible attraction to Montalvo, a man who at the same time represents everything that repulses her.
But that infernal ending (that's not nice, Ms Johansen!) ... it's a cliff-hanger that almost guarantees you'll be off to the bookstore to purchase "Quicksand". You'll want to find out where this whole thing with Montalvo and Duncan is going to end!
Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
Summary of Stalemate (Eve Duncan)
Eve Duncan has turned down the job twice already. Her skill and devotion in identifying murder victims and helping bring their killers to justice may be world-renowned. But Eve works exclusively for law enforcement and the families of the innocent, and the man on the other end of the phone is many things?none of them law-abiding or innocent.One of the world?s most wanted men, little is really known about Luis Montalvo except that he is extraordinarily dangerous and that he never takes no for an answer. Now he wants Eve?s help in the worst way. For he believes they have something in common?and he?s about to prove it with a grisly warning.
Eve will leave everything and everyone behind, even the man she trusts and loves the most, Atlanta detective Joe Quinn, to travel to Montalvo?s luxurious armed compound in the Colombian jungle to identify the skull he has recovered. She has agreed to this devil?s bargain to save an innocent family, but also for a reason she can?t admit to Joe, to the CIA, to anyone. For the man in the jungle has promised to be able to give Eve what she wants most of all?the key to unlocking the darkest and most painful mystery of her past.
But Eve is in more danger than she can imagine. As she gets closer to identifying the skull, she finds herself caught between two ruthless killers with no way out. Now, with everything on the line, Eve Duncan must make the most chilling choice of all. And if she?s wrong?she?s dead.
From the Hardcover edition.
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